Framingham too much for Franklin

Friday

May 18, 2007 at 12:01 AMMay 18, 2007 at 6:04 PM

Keith Pearson/Sports Correspondent

Even though they played with the metal, the Flyers' 6-3 win over visiting Franklin was eerily similar to a number of their games played with wood bats - put the ball in play to put pressure on opposing defenses and make the most of their chances.

In its 5-3 win over Newton North, Framingham turned three Tiger errors into three runs.

Then last weekend, four Franklin errors helped produce five Flyer runs.

In the fifth inning, Franklin starting pitcher Drew Leenhouts quickly got two outs, but the defense failed him by making three straight miscues to load the bases. Brendan Fleming made the visitors pay for their sloppy play by grounding a two-run double down the third baseline for a 3-1 lead.

"Their kid threw pretty well. He was giving us trouble, so to get those two runs was good for us and get the insurance, and we needed it," Framingham coach Dan Avery said.

Framingham (9-4) scored four of its six runs with two outs.

"You can't give a good team like Framingham extra hits and extra at-bats, and they capitalized," Franklin coach Dave Niro said.

Leenhouts, a junior lefty, helped quiet the "ping" sound by keeping the ball down, and he kept the Flyers off-balance with a good curveball. He deserved better than the six runs (two earned) on six hits over six innings.

The lack of solid hits, even the lack of loud outs, left Avery shaking his head.

"I think we swung the bat better with wood, maybe I'm expecting too much," he said of his club that managed just six hits. "I just think it's easier to go from wood to aluminum than aluminum to wood, but that's twice (using aluminum), and the first time we almost got no-hit (a 5-1 loss at Mansfield). And this time I don't think we smashed the ball around."

Heading into a difficult stretch of Bay State Conference play with five games over the next nine days - starting with a home game tomorrow against Weymouth - and then the state tournament looming after, Avery wants to see his club raise its game.

"This time of year you need to play with intensity and you need to be consistent," he said. "I think we played OK today, acceptable. I think we need to pick up the intensity. I thought we played the first five innings like a picnic in the park."

Despite opening up a 6-1 lead after six innings, Framingham was forced to sweat out a Franklin threat in the eighth against a tiring Mike Rafferty, who had thrown 103 pitches through seven.

The Panthers started the inning with three straight singles to score a run and end Rafferty's outing. Joe Sylvester came on in relief and picked up a strikeout for the first out, but pinch-hitter Luke Girolamo followed with a line-drive that loaded the bases.

Andrew Getchell followed with a fly ball to center, and while Sam Adler tagged up and scored, Kyle Cybulski left too early from second base and was ruled out when Luis Rodriguez stepped on second base.

For the Panthers, who fall to 6-10 and need to win out in order to qualify for the postseason, it was the type of mistake that has typified the club.

"It's been happening all year," Niro said. "It's basically a new team, but hey, we're on Game 16. You should know how to do it now, we shouldn't have to lead them by the hand."

Rafferty encountered little trouble over the first seven innings, yielding just an unearned run in the fourth inning that briefly tied the game 1-1. He improved to 3-0 in as many starts.

Right fielder Ruben Rivera, with some relay help from Fleming, helped save the senior righty a run in the fifth by throwing Kyle Kaufman out at the plate on a single by Cybulski.

Another Franklin error played a key role to a three-run uprising in the Framingham sixth. An error on a Dan Guadagnoli grounder down the first baseline plated Paul O'Neill (2-for-4) for a 4-1 lead.

Guadagonoli went to third on a Sylvester double and scored on a passed ball. Nathan Tardiff added an RBI single to left for a 6-1 lead.